Should Wanderers play with such commitment in the final seven games they may yet achieve something truly astonishing but not without discovering an element of good fortune.

Ian Evatt was spot on when he said the automatic promotion race was not over. It is hard to see this Derby team, though successful on the day, negotiating the final seven games with no further hiccups.

The muscular Rams performed to type, snatched a set piece goal in the 78th minute, and Paul Warne sported the smile of a man who had won the lottery as he chatted happily to reporters after the game.

His blueprint for promotion at this level is a proven one and you could hardly blame him for being pleased, his team had been played off the pitch for long spells without ever having to find a response to a goal, and celebrations after the final whistle were more cup final than Saturday afternoon in mid-March.

With leaders Portsmouth winning away at Peterborough, it would be very easy to say a top two place is slipping away, that Bolton had better make peace with the play-offs. With seven games remaining they will have to produce something very special – but should the footballing gods finally smile down, Dion Charles and Nathan Baxter return to full fitness, then why can’t this team pull off the ultimate late dash for success?

Evatt and his side have not particularly had to chase this season. In fact, they haven’t looked especially comfortable as front runners. This manager and his players seem to function better when folk are writing them off, something plenty seem willing to do despite 21 points still being out there to collect.

His job is not necessarily to convince those on the terraces – at least for now – it is to make sure that the squad who report for work through the transfer window do not lose hope. Doing so at this late stage of the season could be damaging in the extreme.

What Evatt really needs in the coming weeks is a touch of luck, a commodity which has been laughably absent for most of this season, and particularly since the turn of the year. Without the key players who have been regularly missing it is difficult to see how they get themselves back into the race, regardless of how well the rest of the squad are performing.

At Pride Park, clear cut chances were rare. Jon Dadi Bodvarsson had the pick of the lot, heading Nat Ogbeta’s cross goalwards from eight yards out, only to be denied the opening goal by a brilliant one-handed save from Joe Wildsmith.

Derby’s best chance of the first half fell to Curtis Nelson, heading over the top from a corner, but their threats were few and far between and Bolton’s superiority had dampened a sold-out home crowd by half time, prompting Warne to make three changes at the break.

Wanderers continued to pin the Rams in for long spells after the restart too – and George Thomason got a clear sight of goal after a swift exchange of passes on the right between Gethin Jones and Josh Sheehan. From a narrow angle, the chance was no tap in, but once again Wildsmith came to his side’s rescue.

Derby had lost striker Dwight Gayle to injury early on, disrupting their attacking patterns. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing hassled and harried, his pace on the break always a danger, but as the game edged towards the final quarter there was little sign that the home team were about to get their biggest win of the season.

The plan, as near as one could tell, was that one of several booming long balls from keeper Wildsmith, a long throw or a corner, would eventually drop to someone wearing white. Ricardo Santos had been impeccable in attacking everything in the air and his team-mates had been quick to mop up the second ball too.

In the 78th minute, however, half-time sub Kane Wilson got a run on Ogbeta and his head to Callum Elder’s cross, his effort squeezing through a mass of defenders to bring a roar of surprise and relief from the home support.

There had been some suggestion after the game of a handball but certainly nothing clear. One of Bolton’s most organised, efficient and effective away performances of the season had suddenly turned into a rescue job.

Evatt would later claim, despite the scoreline, that it had been one of the best displays his side had registered in his near four years. One aspect stops this writer from agreeing.

A minute before the goal Bolton had swapped Bodvarsson for Cameron Jerome, leaving on Aaron Collins, who had failed to reach anywhere near the standard of performance he had shown against Oxford the last time out.

Once behind, Bolton seemed to swap roles, their football becoming panicky and overtly direct. Randell Williams came off the bench to offer his long throw, and even the guile of Sheehan was overlooked as the Whites tried to get back on level terms in too much of a hurry.

Derby avoided any drama in normal time, then with seven additional minutes signalled by the fourth official, they simply sat in and defended their penalty box.

The invention that Wanderers had shown earlier in the game disappeared. The lack of calm heads – shown pretty much all the way through the game – cost them in those final moments, and unlike Derby they certainly were not built to grind out a goal from a set piece.

Locals had been building the game up for weeks, so it was little surprise they celebrated three points with such gusto. Warne’s blueprint, identical in every way to the one he used to get Rotherham into the Championship, had worked again.

Evatt fronted up, insisted that nothing was over, and he is right. Bolton had played well enough to have ended their long wait for a win in Derby, to have at least taken a point back home. Defeat was very difficult to stomach.

Forget the naysayers, critics, rivals and also-rans, the sole focus for Evatt and his players is now to emerge from the international break playing winning football, their way.